Appreciation: How Simon wrote his own second act and finally won over critics

It may be hard for niche-inhabiting denizens of the internet era to appreciate the phenomenal popularity of playwright Neil Simon, who died Sunday at 91. When his name was regularly on the marquees, the theater was the center of the middle-class universe.

In "The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway," author William Goldman stands outside the Plymouth Theatre on a cold February morning in 1968 after Simon's "Plaza Suite" had opened. The line for the box office tripled in a couple of hours and never seemed to shorten throughout the day.

Who were these theatergoers undeterred by the news that the first available Saturday night seats were in April? They were, according to Goldman, "well dressed, most of them - men with briefcases, women with children in strollers - and they were perfectly content to stand there, waiting their turn to buy tickets for the first real blockbuster